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How stupid had I been, coming in guns blazing to save someone who hadn’t wanted or needed saving?
Cyndella had never been paranoid. She had always been right to keep everyone at arm’s length. I was the stupid one, and if I ever made it home, I would be sure to apologize to her.
Rapping at the window turned my attention upward, and I realized that the pane had moved inward, propping ajar slightly.
“Can you get up here?”
Mirielle’s voice wafted out from the breaking dawn, gray light filling the dank cellar. I stood back to take her in from where I stood. I could barely make out the leg of her jeans as she shoved a pair of pants and a hoodie through the tiny space. “Put these on.”
The clothing landed on the floor with a thud, and a part of me wanted to ignore the offerings, but I didn’t. Being naked only made me feel vulnerable, particularly when I had no power of my own, and eventually, I would come face-to-face with Agnan again.
“The key to the cellar door is in the pocket of the jeans,” Mirielle went on, tossing in a pair of running shoes afterward, one of them narrowly missing my head. “Lysandra is half asleep out there. You should be able to overtake her and escape through the side door without being noticed. I’ll meet you outside.”
I shook my head vigorously, even though I wasn’t sure if she could see me. “I don’t want you with me.”
“I have to come with you, Z—Alpha. Agnan is going to know I helped you. He’ll kill me. I have to go with you. At least at first.”
She spoke so matter-of-factly, without fear or begging. “If you don’t let me come with you, you’ll have to find your own way back to the castle. I know this area better than you. I can get you out of the neighborhood and on the right track.”
I ground my teeth together angrily, but I didn’t respond. Once we got away from the house, I could decide what to do with her.
Wriggling into the pants and hoodie, I jammed my feet into the runners that were too small and cringed, recognizing that they were probably all Agnan’s. The whole thing made me feel disgusting. But it was still better than being naked for the time being.
True to her word, I found the key in the right front pocket of the jeans, and as quietly as I could, I unlocked the door, prying it open.
Lysandra was fully asleep in a wooden chair outside the door now. I eyed her, unsure if I should leave her or not.
I didn’t want to kill a sleeping fae, no matter how much of a threat she might be to me, especially not one that looked so malnourished and exhausted.
What is Agnan doing to these faeries? How do they follow him so blindly?
Before I could decide what to do with her, the side door to my right opened, and Mirielle stood at the threshold, waving at me furiously. I left Lysandra sleeping and hurried toward her as silently as possible, casting the slumbering guard a glance over my shoulder in my wake.
But Lysandra remained asleep, and I made it into the waking morning, outside the crumbling house. I could still see it, but I didn’t know what that meant for the invisibility cloak that had covered it.
Without a word, Mirielle led me toward the street, pulling up her own hood as she gestured for me to do the same. I wanted to call out to her and ask her where she was taking me, but I didn’t, relieved to be leaving the decrepit neighborhood.
Mirielle didn’t speak until we were three streets over.
“This is as far as I go with you,” I growled, stopping abruptly on a street corner. “Grendel.”
She also paused and looked at me imploringly. “Please… just let me get you safely back to the castle, then I’ll go.”
I laughed mirthlessly. “Suddenly you care about my safety?” I snorted. “I don’t want you anywhere near the castle.”
“I got you out of there, didn’t I?” she fired back. “This isn’t smart, arguing on a street corner, Zen. We need to keep moving before someone sees us.”
I almost corrected her on my name, but she didn’t give me a chance, grabbing my arm and yanking me toward a back street. She clearly knew the area well.
“I can stop and call someone,” I reminded her flatly after a few minutes, the residential area becoming more spread out, the houses growing more upscale.
I still didn’t know the neighborhood.
“Agnan will have scouts watching the castle,” she muttered. “It’s better if we sneak back in than send someone out.”
I wasn’t sure I agreed with her reasoning, but so far, we hadn’t been confronted, and without my shifting powers, I didn’t have much of a choice but to follow her lead, much as I loathed it.
“Whatever you say, Grendel.”
